Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2010 March 9

= March 9 =

Recovery disk
Can a recovery disk fix an infected Vista Home Premium notebook? It seems to be a particularly nasty virus. A neighbor asked me to fix it. When I booted it the first time, I had no trouble running Antivir, which reported no problem. The next time I booted, all heck broke out. Clarityfiend (talk) 01:47, 9 March 2010 (UTC)


 * Please describe what you mean when you say " all heck broke out " . – Elliott (Talk|Cont)   02:12, 9 March 2010 (UTC)
 * It seemed to boot okay. Then, Antivir started to run (by itself?) and I kept getting all sorts of messages popping up from all over the place, from Antivir and from the taskbar, that files were corrupted, with different viruses being "identified". Clarityfiend (talk) 03:02, 9 March 2010 (UTC)
 * Anyway to boot into safe mode and run antivir from there?– Elliott (Talk|Cont)   03:32, 9 March 2010 (UTC)


 * Addressing the Recovery disc part of your question, if it is for the notebook in question then yes, it should fix the problem, but at the cost of all your neighbours data. Recovery disks that come with computers usually restore the computer to the state it was when you first received it, i.e. without any data - It should warn about this before it starts to do a recovery though. If the disc is for another computer then whether it works or not is anyones guess although since all the drivers would be wrong I really wouldn't recommend it! ZX81  talk  03:12, 9 March 2010 (UTC)


 * If you would like to know what i would do, please read on. I would download Ubunut from here, and burn that to a CD. Then i would boot that virus infested computer from that CD. After booted i would download and install Clamav And clamtk (GUI for clamav) by typing in "sudo apt-get install clamav clamtk" in the terminal. Then while holding alt i would tap the F2 key. then i would type in clamtk and click run. Once that opens i would click on every check box there. After doing that i would click the button labeled "directory" and point that to the laptops hard drive. After selected i would wait while it scans the computer. Once it finishes scanning i think it will give you options to remove said virus'. If it doesnt i would just go though the list and remove them my self. – Elliott (Talk|Cont)   03:31, 9 March 2010 (UTC)


 * Personally, I doubt it's even an actual virus at all. I think it's far more likely that it's some kind of malware, like Antivirus 2009. In which case... good luck. They're almost never detected by antivirus programs. The worst of those malware infections will prevent you from installing or running MBAM or any of the standard anti-malware tools. If it's bad enough, you might have to use an Ubuntu LiveCD (as described above), but just to copy the important files off the drive onto an external drive. Then format and reinstall. Indeterminate (talk) 03:46, 9 March 2010 (UTC)


 * Thanks all. The recovery disk seems to have worked [cross fingers]. Clarityfiend (talk) 21:39, 10 March 2010 (UTC)

School computer help
Back in the mid-nineties, before the computers at my school switched to Windows 95, they had a different operating system installed. All I can remember about it is that it was that you had to type in your name to get to your own personal account, and the color scheme was red on blue. I'm curious as to the identity of this "operating system". Thanks in advance.

Americanfreedom (talk) 02:56, 9 March 2010 (UTC)


 * Wikipedia has a timeline of operating systems. Have a look though there and see if anything look familiar. – Elliott (Talk|Cont)   03:19, 9 March 2010 (UTC)


 * Do you remember what the keyboards were like? The most relevant question is if it was a mac or a PC, because most PCs prior to the windows systems would run dos with some sort of graphical manager on top of them. Those could have looked like a lot of things, and I can't remember what the one I knew was called. I'd think before 95 though that most machines would have been Windows 3.1. But I suppose it's possible they were still dos. Shadowjams (talk) 06:22, 9 March 2010 (UTC)


 * It depends on your age, but could it be some pre-PC computers? For example, my old school used to have an Elliott 405 (a predecessor to the Elliott 803), which was replaced by a suite of Apple IIs in 1980.  After the Apples got retired, I believe they bought some BBC Micros before moving to PCs.  Astronaut (talk) 09:12, 9 March 2010 (UTC)
 * The OP said in the mid nineties before they switched to Windows 95 (I presume this means they changed from these computers to Windows 95 based computers). It's possible that some schools kept their Elliott 405s until 1995 or so and then replaced them with Windows 95 based computers, but I doubt there were many Nil Einne (talk) 21:02, 9 March 2010 (UTC)


 * It's possible those were mainframe computer terminals. IBM and DEC seemed to be the most popular.  Was there a "box", or just a monitor and keyboard ?  The lack of a box would tend to indicate that they were mainframe terminals, although Apple did make some personal computers where the "guts" were part of the keyboard. StuRat (talk) 17:38, 9 March 2010 (UTC)


 * DOS, CP/M, Unix? 78.146.202.143 (talk) 17:55, 9 March 2010 (UTC)


 * Mid-1990s conjures up memories of OS/2 Warp, Windows 3.1, System 7, and my elementary school's ancient Apple IIe's running Apple ProDOS, I guess. --Mr.98 (talk) 23:01, 11 March 2010 (UTC)


 * Don't forget Netware ;-) -- 78.43.60.58 (talk) 15:48, 13 March 2010 (UTC)

javascript  color
I have this function in my monobook.js on another site:

but the color does not change despite setting it. Why? Using s.style.backgroundColor = 'blah' works as intended. This is probably something obvious I just don't know about. --194.197.235.240 (talk) 10:58, 9 March 2010 (UTC)


 * Well of course it was. I need to set the color of the  element (s.firstChild.style.color = 'blah'). --194.197.235.240 (talk) 13:53, 9 March 2010 (UTC)

Duplicate Installations of Same Software
I'm running Windows 7 and I was wondering if its normal to have duplicate installations of some software. When I look in programs and features, it shows Windows Visual C++ 2005 Redistributable is installed and also Windows Visual C++ 2008 Redistributable. Can I just remove the 2005 version? Also, for java, it shows several different updates. It shows Java 6 Update 12 and Java 6 Update 18 and some others. Can I just remove all the old ones?

Thanks! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.169.39.243 (talk) 10:59, 9 March 2010 (UTC)
 * I would say, unless you are desperately short of space, leave them. Older software specifically looks for distro versions and older DLLs etc. - Visual Basic is notorious for this, and yet there are other development platforms that allow everything to link into the EXE therefore not needing support files (depending what the app does). If these development distros were fully downward compatible, they would have removed the older versions on installation. Or, you could have installed something that didn't understand there was a higher distro and went ahead and installed the lower version. AFAIK java is downward compatible but perhaps someone else can comment. Multiple .NET framework distros are often needed, on my computer as well. And don't worry, it's most often the case that there are multiple registry keys to handle these "duplicate" versions as well, and your applications would either target the registry or look for specific DLLs. Sandman30s (talk) 12:15, 9 March 2010 (UTC)
 * You do usually need multiple Visual C++ redists since these are not backwards compatible so whichever one software needs it needs (in fact some will need more then one). However at the current time, you should only need 2 (or 3 if you have a x64 version of Windows) since 3.5 includes 2.0 and upwards. 1.1 is not included and may be required by some applications. However you should not have to worry about this and there's no need to uninstall anything.
 * But when it comes to Java, unless you need Update 12 or some other version for a specific reason, I strongly recommend you only ever use the latest version. In particular Java 6 prior to update 15 includes as severe XML vunerablity  which allows remote code execution. Generally speaking, unless your a developer there's no reason why you would need an older version of Java and unless you know what you're doing, there's a risk you may use the older version if you have 2 versions installed. This is particularly the case for the same basic Java version i.e. it's more likely you'll need Java 5 (and these will usually remain supported) although if you do you again should keep up to date (Java 5 prior to version 20 is also vunerable to the XML bug for example) although again it's generally unlikely you'll need an old version if you're not a developer. Of course again there is the exception that you may want both the x64 and x32 versions (both up to date).
 * Of course the above is not much different from other things. For example while you may need different versions of the redistributables, you'll always want the latest service pack if one exists. Similarly you generally don't need multiple versions of Firefox and if you do, you should generally only use the latest update for each version. Or a more extreme version, if you dualboot multiple OSes you should keep each one up to date at least within the version. Except in specific cases there's no reason to have Vista RTM and Vista SP1 (although this isn't quite so bad since Microsoft usually releases security updates for the non SP versions for a while).
 * Nil Einne (talk) 13:38, 9 March 2010 (UTC)

Thanks for the great answer! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.169.39.243 (talk) 00:18, 10 March 2010 (UTC)
 * Just want to add that you shouldn't need to worry about most Microsoft redistributables particularly if running Windows 7 (or Windows Vista). Even if you think you already have it, if something wants to install, let it, generally speaking unless very old, the installer is smart enough not to overwrite new versions with old versions or install something you don't need. These should also integrate to Windows update, so if you use Windows update, you will automatically be offered critical security updates and the like (or if you choose to let it automatically install, it will automatically install), you don't really need to manually look for updates.
 * When it comes to Java, Sun does include an automatic updater, I don't actually use this for various reasons however it may be useful if you're not in the habit of manually updating. You can choose so it only notifies you. As I don't use it, I'm not sure how this updater handles updates, I would hope it overwrites existing versions rather then installing in a new location and leaving the old version. I know that by default, when you install Java does choose a directory that has the full version including update which is great if you do want multiple versions but does mean you will tend to end up with multiple versions if you don't automatically specify a different directory. I tend to use a directory only specifying the base version e.g. jre6 which avoids ending up with multiple versions.
 * Nil Einne (talk) 15:07, 12 March 2010 (UTC)

Swedish letters in Facebook messages
How can I type Swedish letters (å, ä, ö) in Facebook messages? DuncanHill (talk) 11:09, 9 March 2010 (UTC)
 * I have never used Facebook, but I assume they use normal edit fields. You probably have a ¨ key on your keyboard. Press this one, followed by A, O, a, or o, to insert Ä, Ö, ä, or ö. Å and å can be inserted by using Alt+0197 and Alt+0229, respectively. --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 13:38, 9 March 2010 (UTC)


 * Nope, don't seem to have a one of those. I've worked out how to use the character map to copy/paste, Alt only seems to work if I use numlock too. DuncanHill (talk) 14:01, 9 March 2010 (UTC)


 * In MacOS, å is option-a; ä is option-u a; ö is option-u o. —Tamfang (talk) 18:26, 9 March 2010 (UTC)
 * It depends on what OS you are using. In Windows (at least XP, the most recent one I've used) it is possible to install several keyboard layouts. I believe this is done through right-clicking on the icon labeled 'EN' in the system tray. You can then switch between the different layouts. This assumes that you know where on the Swedish keyboard letters Ä, Ö, ä, or ö. Å and å are - you will have to type them blind. If you do this a lot you will get quickly used to it. Same method works on Linux (and I assume MacOS).213.160.108.26 (talk) 22:51, 10 March 2010 (UTC)


 * In Windows: Alt+0228 = ä, Alt+0229 = å, Alt+0246 = ö, Alt+0196 = Ä, Alt=0197 = Å, Alt+0214 = Ö. If numlock is on, you can use Alt+ to enter many characters from common European character sets, including Swedish.  In the Character Map utility, the codes appear to the bottom right of the window.  Astronaut (talk) 13:00, 12 March 2010 (UTC)

Deleting a desktop file that is there but windows says it cant be found?
I have a file on my desktop of a program I was trying to download. The download never completed sucessfully in firefox. The size is 0 bytes, attributes "A" (not sure what that means) and when I try to delete it, windows says "Could not find this item. This is no longer located in C:\Users\myusername\Desktop. Verify the item's location and try again. I have tried this several times and it wont work. I am running windows 7 and I am logged in under the only username that I have created. Thanks for your time! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.169.39.243 (talk) 11:09, 9 March 2010 (UTC)


 * Firstly - have you rebooted your PC? A cliche but a likely reason in this circumstance is the system not 'letting go' of the file from the failed download. Next up if that doesn't resolve it would be to try navigate to the desktop through your C-drive (that is my computer - documents and settings - your username - desktops usually) and try deleting it from within the file-window there. Failing that not sure what else to try, system restore is always an option if you've got it turned on but seems a bit drastic for this. 194.221.133.226 (talk) 11:56, 9 March 2010 (UTC)


 * I indented the previous answer You could try running in Safe mode (assuming Win 7 has one) - that might allow you to delete the file, or whatever traces of it are left. AndrewWTaylor (talk) 14:40, 9 March 2010 (UTC)


 * Ccleaner may help, and is easy to use and reliable. 78.146.202.143 (talk) 17:59, 9 March 2010 (UTC)

I have tried CCleaner, rebooting, and going to the actual folder where the file is located (desktop folder) and no luck. I will try the safe mode option. Thanks for everyone's help —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.169.39.243 (talk) 00:16, 10 March 2010 (UTC)


 * If safe mode did not work then there is freeware software available that will delete stubborn files. The free Avast! anti-virus can do boot-time scans which may help also. 89.242.120.116 (talk) 18:59, 14 March 2010 (UTC)

WMV file in Powerpoint, define 'where' opens
I have a large 30-min video that I want to use in a powerpoint presentation, but I want the file to open at a set point (say 27 mins and 30 seconds) rather than just at the beginning. I cannot download software to do this (i'm at work you see) so what i'm looking for is to understand if there is any way to do this? Software wise I have Windows Media Player (version 10) and Powerpoint (2003) with no access to anything more (well apart from your usual MS Office programs). Cheers peeps. 194.221.133.226 (talk) 11:27, 9 March 2010 (UTC)


 * What I would do is, before the presentation, launch the WMV file with Windows Media Player, queue it up to 27 minutes and 30 seconds, then launch PowerPoint, and then in the middle of the presentation when it's video time I would alt-tab over to Windows Media Player. Then alt-tab back to PowerPoint (or maybe close Windows Media Player) when the video is done.  Is there a reason this won't work?  Comet Tuttle (talk) 15:23, 9 March 2010 (UTC)


 * Even if you only have standard Windows, you may well still have Windows Movie Maker installed and can edit the video down to just the piece you want? --Phil Holmes (talk) 15:47, 9 March 2010 (UTC)


 * This might not help you much, but you can do this in Powerpoint 2010. 121.72.196.8 (talk) 08:51, 11 March 2010 (UTC)

Ubuntu 9.10 Update Manager Help
Recently, instead of getting 'Package information was last updated less than 1 hour ago' after every update, the message itself seems not to be updating itself. At the moment I am getting 'Package information was last updated 41 days ago'. Can anyone see what the problem is here and (in laymen's terms, please!) help me out? Thanks a lot in advance. -- KägeTorä - (影虎) (TALK) 12:05, 9 March 2010 (UTC)


 * Are you sure it's actually attempting the updates ? And are you sure that they are succeeding ? StuRat (talk) 17:28, 9 March 2010 (UTC)


 * Well, it downloads the packages, installs them, then has a blank window with no more updates to install, as usual. The only difference now from the way it used to be is the '41 days ago' bit. It does tell me that certain servers could not be located, but this is for software which is no longer supported on those servers. Could this be what the problem is? -- KägeTorä - (影虎) (TALK) 20:59, 9 March 2010 (UTC)
 * Try opening a root shell (should be in the admin or system menu), and enter

apt-get update
 * This is the low-level way of updating ubuntu's idea of what packages are available. It will spit out the progress of fetching each package-index. If this reports errors, then enter

nano /etc/apt/source.list
 * which edits the list of package lists and remove the line corresponding to error. CS Miller (talk) 22:16, 9 March 2010 (UTC)

Linux dialog command is driving me crazy
Hi everybody,

when I run the following bash script FOO=$(dialog --menu "foo" 0 0 0 "1" "o n e" "2" "t w o" 3>&1 1>&2 2>&3 3>&-) echo $FOO everything works as expected: foo 1 | o n e 2 | t w o OK Cancel
 * 1) !/bin/bash

However, when I try to insert the name/value pairs as a variable, it acts in a different way: STRING='"1" "o n e" "2" "t w o"' FOO=$(dialog --menu "foo" 0 0 0 $STRING 3>&1 1>&2 2>&3 3>&-) echo $FOO The result is: foo "1" | "o n  | e" "2" | "t w   | o" OK Cancel Obviously this is not what I want. Is there any way to feed a string to dialog in a way that it acts like in the first example? -- 78.43.60.58 (talk) 14:40, 9 March 2010 (UTC)
 * 1) !/bin/bash
 * I'm no bash expert, but it looks like it's parsing the spaces in your variable. Mess around with escaping the spaces with \ and see if you can get it to work that way. Something like...

STRING='"1" "o\ n\ e" "2" "t\ w\ o"' That may be more complicated than it needs to be, though. I'm sure the Linux-friendly folk around here will correct me shortly. Coreycubed (talk) 15:16, 9 March 2010 (UTC) edit: silly me put a few too many \ in there.
 * You can tell the shell to evaluate that variable as if you'd typed it by using "eval":

FOO=$(eval dialog --menu "foo" 0 0 0 $STRING 3>&1 1>&2 2>&3 3>&-)
 * That can also lead to madness, but it works in this case. Eventually you'll want a programming language that's less convenient.  --Sean 20:53, 9 March 2010 (UTC)
 * Replacing the shebang with #!/bin/bash -xv will show the commands bash evaluates before and after any expansion. Its very handy to tell why your script is misbehaving. CS Miller (talk) 23:58, 9 March 2010 (UTC)

Letting people on local network access a server on my computer
Hi all,

I'm using an application that is setting up a server on my computer. If I navigate to http://localhost:8001/ on my computer, I can see a web page and interact with it.

How can I have other people on my local network access this same page? I'm guessing I can do http://{my-ip}:8001/ -- is that right? If so, how do I find out the ip address? I used "ifconfig" on my command line (I'm using Mac OSX) and it gave me a whole bunch of stuff.

Thanks! &mdash; Sam 63.138.152.155 (talk) 16:04, 9 March 2010 (UTC)


 * When you use ifconfig, the 4 numbers following "inet addr:" is your IP address. You will also need to ensure your firewall is open to allow incoming traffic on 8001. -- k a i n a w &trade; 16:08, 9 March 2010 (UTC)
 * Also note, the "lo" has an address of 127.0.0.1. You don't want that one.  You probably have an eth0 or eth1 address.  That is the one you want. -- k a i <font color='#660099'>n <font color='#3300cc'>a <font color='#0000ff'>w &trade; 16:08, 9 March 2010 (UTC)
 * (ec) You are correct. From the Apple menu, select System Preferences. Click on View, and then Network. Select the interface (Ethernet, Airport, etc) and your IP should be displayed under Status. If you're running OS X 10.4 or lower, select Location from the Apple menu, then Network Preferences. Click on Network Status to see your IP address. If other computers still can't access the page, check to see if you have a firewall blocking access. Coreycubed (talk) 16:12, 9 March 2010 (UTC)


 * Thanks. I found it after seeing my ip address here, and then checking the results of ifconfig. It shows after "en1: ... inet [my ip address]." &mdash; Sam 16:23, 9 March 2010 (UTC)

Email - outlook - smtp
Where do I set up smtp on outlook 97? - Kittybrewster <font color="0000FF">&#9742;  17:34, 9 March 2010 (UTC)


 * Have you got either the Internet Mail Enhancement Patch or Office 97 Service Release 1 installed? Outlook 97 was originally designed for connecting just to corporate mailservers and didn't come with POP/SMTP support, but the patch above added some basically support (and was also included in the service release). <span style="font-size:14px;font-weight:bold;font-family:verdana;color:#800040;filter:Shadow(color=#000000,strength=1);height:15px;">ZX81  talk  18:02, 9 March 2010 (UTC)
 * I have downloaded and installed the patch. The SR-1 seems to be just a fact sheet. Kittybrewster <font color="0000FF">&#9742;  22:30, 9 March 2010 (UTC)

Folder encryption
I'm using WindowsXP. Is there any free encryption/security software that will require me to enter the key once, but after that allow unrestricted access until the computer is restarted? I want to keep my correspondence and so on confidential if the computer is stolen. The folder will be accessed by OpenOffice etc. I've read the Truecrypt article, I do not know if it will do that. Thanks 78.146.202.143 (talk) 17:52, 9 March 2010 (UTC)


 * Yes TrueCrypt will do exactly that. You can create a volume which you have to type in the password once and it'll open it into a new drive letter. Simply store your files on that like any other drive and upon shutdown/restart it'll close the volume and you will need to type in your password again to access in once more. <span style="font-size:14px;font-weight:bold;font-family:verdana;color:#800040;filter:Shadow(color=#000000,strength=1);height:15px;">ZX81  talk  18:05, 9 March 2010 (UTC)


 * I also recommend TrueCrypt, but you should know it does almost what you are asking about. It won't actually be a literal folder you are accessing.  TrueCrypt creates a "volume file" which is a file on your hard disk.  The file is encrypted and indecipherable without the correct password.  When you double-click the volume file and enter the password, TrueCrypt mounts the volume file as if it were a separate disk.  Right now I have one mounted as my N: drive, so within the N: drive, I have created folders and organized my files as you would on a USB key drive.  It will indeed keep your data within that volume confidential if the computer is stolen.  Note that a very technically oriented hacker may be able to find some of your data anyway, because all Windows OSs and many applications have a paging file and various temporary files where parts of your data may be stored temporarily for the software's convenience.  Your C: drive is not going to be encrypted in this scenario, so even when the temporary files are deleted, the hacker may be able to scan the disk surface and reassemble your data.  If you're paranoid about that, too, TrueCrypt has some whole-disk encryption solutions, too (which I have not used); or, alternatively, you could instead use BitLocker, though that will require an OS upgrade to one of the more-expensive editions of Windows Vista or Windows 7.  Comet Tuttle (talk) 18:25, 9 March 2010 (UTC)


 * I'd like to point out that you can always mount a hard drive (or, in this case a virtual truecrypt hard drive) as a ntfs folder. – Elliott  (Talk|Cont)   07:08, 10 March 2010 (UTC)

I also have a removeable HD that is accessed through USB - will it work for that too? And how would using Truecrypt affect backing up? Thanks. 78.146.202.143 (talk) 18:39, 9 March 2010 (UTC)


 * 1. Yes; TrueCrypt can encrypt an "encrypted file container", which is its name for the "volume file" I discussed above; or it can encrypt a non-system drive, which is your USB drive; or it can encrypt the entire system drive.  I have never done the latter two.  Note that for that external USB drive, you could either use the full disk encryption, or create a great big encrypted file container on the drive; there are good arguments for each approach.  2.  If you use TrueCrypt to create an "encrypted file container", you get to choose how big you want the file.  Suppose it's 100MB.  Any time you write to that volume, the 100MB file will be marked as "modified", so your backup software will want to back up the whole 100MB.  Details:  Even mounting the volume will write to it, so every time you use it at all it will be marked as having been modified.  If you use a sector-level backup program like recent versions of Norton Ghost, only the modified sectors will be marked as needing to be backed up.  Comet Tuttle (talk) 19:07, 9 March 2010 (UTC)

You can also password protect folders with NTFS —Preceding unsigned comment added by Fire2010 (talk • contribs) 19:46, 9 March 2010 (UTC)


 * True, and far simpler than using TrueCrypt; but it doesn't help with the original poster's concern about a stolen computer, if the thief boots from an external drive. Comet Tuttle (talk) 20:16, 9 March 2010 (UTC)


 * I presume the OP is talking about Encrypting File System. The caveats are somewhat discussed in the article and the references and external links should be helpful and there must be plenty of useful sources on the internet. But as I understand it, booting from an external drive doesn't help (why would it? If the content is encrypted and you can't decrypt it, it doesn't matter if you can boot the computer.) provided EFS is properly implemented and you don't leave the recovery key if it exists somewhere where it's easy to steal (the stupidest thing would be on the computer, which Windows 2k did as our article mentions and discussed here for example).
 * Of course the typical caveats for any password protection applies, using a weak password, leaving it somewhere where it's easy to steal (again unprotect on the computer) etc. Since the password is the same as the user's password and the content is mounted as soon as you login some additional risk exists depending on how you set up the computer (although these apply more to long term and external threats rather then stolen computers).
 * However only the content stored in the encrypted directories will be protected and in particular unlike with whole disk encryption there's a strong risk that temporary files and the pagefile may contain data you are trying to protect (including the possibility it may be in unencrypted form in deleted files). Of course this isn't that different from using a file container or invidual partition to store the data if you similarly don't ensure that temporary files and the pagefile are stored on the encrypted container (and on Windows it's my understanding it's rather difficult to ensure nothing is leaked).
 * There is of course BitLocker on Vista and Windows 7.
 * The biggest caveat with Microsoft solutions (other then only being available on certain versions and to Microsoft OSes) is perhaps that they're closed source, so you can't evaluate the code which is often/usually consider poor security practice (security by obscurity), although Microsoft does use standard algorithms.
 * Nil Einne (talk) 20:30, 9 March 2010 (UTC)


 * The original poster is obviously unfamiliar with EFS, so simply password-protecting NTFS folders won't offer him any protection against an external boot. Comet Tuttle (talk) 21:19, 9 March 2010 (UTC)
 * Apologies I presumed we were talking about EFS since even though it's not called password protection (although is linked to the account password) it's the only built in form of protection I'm aware of in NTFS. Well there are access controls, but those aren't called password protection either and while linked to the account are not really linked to the the password so seemed irrelevant since they were never mentioned. In fact, other then account based password requirements (which are unrelated to the file system), the only password protection I'm aware of in Windows is the ability to turn on and off password protection for network shares, but that seemed irrelevant since we were never talking about network shares and again is more of a system level issue rather then an NTFS one (although linked to the access controls and user). Is there some sort of non-encrypting password protection in NTFS I'm not aware of? A quickish search doesn't find anything. If not, I feel my answer addressed the issue of password protection on NTFS, whatever the dubious nonsigner may have meant. Nil Einne (talk) 03:43, 10 March 2010 (UTC)

Instead of having one enormous TrueCrypt thing that had a tree of folders (including their files) within them, could I have a tree of folders with an encrypted thing in each folder? 78.146.202.143 (talk) 20:38, 9 March 2010 (UTC)


 * Yes, you can have your C: drive unencrypted as usual, and have a tree of folders, and put a TrueCrypt encrypted file container in each folder, if you want. Each encrypted file container will mount as a separate drive.  Comet Tuttle (talk) 21:18, 9 March 2010 (UTC)

Sort in Excel - blank cells first
By default, Excel sorts blank cells below non-blank cells. Is there any way to alter that behaviour? By way of example, suppose I have a 6 row by 2 column table of single digit integers:


 * 1
 * 1 1
 * 2
 * 2 2
 * 3
 * 3 3

If sorted on column A then B (whether B is ascending or descending) I end up with


 * 1 1
 * 1
 * 2 2
 * 2
 * 3 3
 * 3

which just happens to be fatal for my (slightly more complicated than this example) application. Excel 2003, if it matters. thanks --Tagishsimon (talk) 18:27, 9 March 2010 (UTC)


 * I am embarrassed to suggest this, but here is how I just did it using Excel 2007. First I control-clicked each empty cell and marked its font color to be red.  Then in the Sort dialog box I sorted:


 * By column A on values, smallest to largest
 * By column B on font color, red on top
 * By column B on values, smallest to largest


 * The disadvantage is that you have to mark all your empty cells as having a red font color, but this may be OK with you if you're doing something quick. Also you can probably use conditional formatting to have Excel mark all the empty cells in the column as red to make this (probably) work without having to manually mark all those empty cells.  Comet Tuttle (talk) 18:42, 9 March 2010 (UTC)


 * Another way of doing this is to enter zeroes instead of empty cells, if that doesn't screw you up in some other way (like if you will have some zeroes in your data), sort by A then B; and then in another part of your worksheet, or on another page, fill up the cells with statements like =IF(A1=0,"",A1) in order to change all the zeroes to empty cells.  You do all the sorting on the raw data and then the area you look at is the part of the worksheet with all the IF statements, if I've explained this intelligibly.  Comet Tuttle (talk) 18:46, 9 March 2010 (UTC)


 * Thanks CT. Sorting by colour would be an excellent way to go, but is unavailable in Excel 2003. Your second suggestion works fine in my application, though; I can use 0 and then, as you note, parse it out with an IF statement; better, I can suppress the display of the zero figure. I'm very grateful; I had come up only with a solution involving a couple of sorts and an additional index column inserted before the second sort; but that would be much more clunky and less elegant. --Tagishsimon (talk) 22:55, 9 March 2010 (UTC)

Convert to mhtml
I need to save 2,000 html files as mhtml every day. Currently I open them in firefox and save them that way. I was wondering if there is a simpler solution, perhaps a program dedicated to saving links as mhtml? Having 900 tabs open is slightly draining on my system. Thanks —Preceding unsigned comment added by Fire2010 (talk • contribs) 19:43, 9 March 2010 (UTC)


 * MHTML is unfortunately a pretty idiosyncratic format. And it's not clear to me exactly how this works. But if it were me, I'd probably try to find a way to do it with scripting of some sort. But giving advice as to how that would work would require more knowledge of your workflow. Are you given a list of links and then you are to save them? Do you have to search for them in Google and then save them? Depending on what the full task is (not just saving at MHTML), there will be better ways to do this. Rest assured, there is probably a better way than what you are currently doing! --Mr.98 (talk) 02:59, 10 March 2010 (UTC)

Major Google trouble
moved from WP:RD/M

I am using Firefox 3.5.8 and have been having trouble with google links. this has been going on for a while, and it does things from redirecting to something called search.pro, to just displaying the entirely wrong page. (i was looking for a place to buy a bass guitar bridge and instead got redirected to a youtube video of an AC/DC cover...wtf?) has anyone encountered this problem too, and, does anyone know how to fix it?? 71.223.216.139 (talk) 19:25, 9 March 2010 (UTC)


 * First, download and run a Malware scanner and antivirus software. There are known pieces of malware that hijack your URL entries and redirect you elsewhere.  Comet Tuttle (talk) 19:47, 9 March 2010 (UTC)


 * Once my computer was doing something just like that and it ended up being a virus. Mine was a Windows XP computer and another thing at the same time was I could not open a command prompt. If you have a Windows machine, try clicking on the start button, clicking Run... and then entering cmd in the little window that pops up. 20.137.18.50 (talk) 19:49, 9 March 2010 (UTC)
 * Agree with the above. You have a virus redirecting your connections from google. There are two easy ways to get rid of it; look in task manager for any programs that aren't yours, "kill process" on them and then delete the source file. Your second option is to use a anti-virus scanner / remover, I suggest combofix —Preceding unsigned comment added by Fire2010 (talk • contribs) 19:55, 9 March 2010 (UTC)

out of the 144,000 objects it scanned, Malwarebyte found 3 trojans. i removed them, and im still getting redirected to some weird search site. also, the Command Prompt works fine. any other suggestions? 71.223.216.139 (talk) 20:49, 9 March 2010 (UTC)
 * some malware is sneaky and will not be killed from some programs. I had a virus once and it took 4 different antivirus/antimalware programs before I finally got rid of it.  Googlemeister (talk) 21:04, 9 March 2010 (UTC)


 * Unfortunately Googlemeister is right. The first thing to try is to download additional anti-malware programs.  Don't have multiple antivirus programs running simultaneously, but run several anti-malware programs, one after another; each is a little different and you may luck out.  If this fails, try uninstalling your web browser and reinstalling with a fresh download.  If this fails, then I would take the drastic measure of backing up your entire hard disk, reformatting it, and installing everything from scratch, and then restoring your data files from the backup.  And this time set it up so there's one account with administrator rights, used only for installing new software; and another account with no administrator rights, which you use for your everyday computing.  And stop running executables you download from other websites.  This reduces the probability of another Trojan or virus infection.  Comet Tuttle (talk) 21:26, 9 March 2010 (UTC)


 * Where exactly are you getting redirected? Can you get to Google and then get re-directed after querying or can you not get to Google at all? Moreover, is Google your homepage? Some malware resets your homepage to the bogus one they want you to go to. If that's the case, the solution might be as easy as typing in google.com in the address bar and resetting the homepage yourself. 64.235.97.146 (talk) 21:43, 10 March 2010 (UTC)

Online forums/portals
Mean before foundin and/or comin here? Is it me that we are treated as we are still babies/kids? Is it me that there are owner/s, admin/s, mod/s whom have no clue on how to run forum?

Above is both of an question and rant from me. Know that I'm not the only one whom has experience this before. Its hard even though they all know and we have talked about it. Mostly there are other factors which I can't think of at moment. Somehow I never could avoid this when lookin for new forums for myself. Hope being here is goin to stop this. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Mybodymyself (talk • contribs) 23:51, 9 March 2010 (UTC)


 * Here is not going to stop this, since the wikipedia reference desks are not a forum. It is more than unclear from your question what problems you have had on other fora, and that being the case, I'm uncertain that we can tender you much help, other than to advise that you think critically about why the problems continually arise - is it, in fact, because of something you are doing rather than something that these diabolical owner/s, admin/s, mod/s are doing? And then reading WP:AGF and applying it to pretty much any situation is beneficial. --Tagishsimon (talk) 23:56, 9 March 2010 (UTC)